Generate names for your restaurant below.
Ashley S.
Branding & Marketing Specialist
How to name your restaurant
Hey, I’m Ashley (Branding Expert) and I’m going to guide you through our four detailed steps that will help you to come up with a creative and sound name for your restaurant. Below you’ll find twenty example names I created in this process and next, I’ll show you how you can create your own. To get started, try our restaurant name generator above and then scroll below to find the first step in the naming process.
- Island Grill
- Flavoroso
- Green Curry
- El Pirata Porch
- Sweet Escape
- Salty Squid
- Bangalore Spices
- Pancake World
- Veganic Corner
- Masala
- Grassfed Grill
- Greenanic Smoothies
- Freddy’s Stove
- Grandma’s Sweets
- Spicella Spanish Kitchen
- Xin Chao Vietnamese Restaurant
- Paterro’s Kitchen
- Mediterra Seafood
- Street Deli
- Whispering Bamboo
Premium names to kickstart your business
Created by branding experts and professional designers.
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#1) Brainstorm your name ideas
Start by brainstorming what words could fit into your business name. In my name ideas, I used words like “Grill”, “Kitchen”, “Porch” and “Stove”, you can see that while these words can be related to restaurants, they also suggest that you can expect a delicious, organic and tasty sort of food from this restaurant. Your goal here is to create a list of words or names that come to mind when thinking about your business.
If you’re stuck on words to use, try our business name generator.
Here are my name ideas after brainstorming:
#2) Shortlist your ideas
Once you’ve developed a list of possible names, do an analysis of your ideas. Remove any names that could be hard to remember, spell or speak aloud. Keep names that are brandable, sound great, are memorable and communicate your brand values, product or service to your target audience.
Here’s a quick checklist you can run your ideas through to help shorten your list of name:
- Is the name simple and easy to remember?
- Is the name easy to read and say aloud?
- Is the name different from competitors?
- Does the name convey a relevant meaning?
- Does the name avoid overused words or cliches?
My Shortlist:
Removed Ideas:
Create a unique business name with our Business Name Generator!
#3) Get some feedback
You’ll now have a list of 3-6 great restaurant names and you can start to ask potential customers or people working in the industry for feedback (your target audience). Avoid feedback from family and friends since they are more likely to praise all your ideas and they aren’t your customer.
Be sure to ask questions like:
- What first comes to mind when you first hear the name?
- How would you spell it?
With you’re customer feedback you can now ask yourself is the name still relevant? and did it represent your business how you intended?
My customer feedback:
This name conveys a restaurant that specializes in cooking seafood delicacies.
This name conveys a restaurant that cooks only vegetable-based dishes that are organically grown.
This name conveys a restaurant that specializes in Mediterranean cuisine based on fresh seafood.
This name conveys a restaurant focusing on cooking healthy and organic Asian cuisine.
#4) Check It’s available
At this point, it’s good to have at least three great restaurant names on your list, in case your any of your names are already taken. You can do a quick Business Name Search online to find out if you’re name is available within your country/state, also be sure to search if the name is also available for Trademark and Domain name Registration.
Check Domain Availability
Competitor Name Analysis
To help you brainstorm potential business names, let’s take a look at three successful restaurant businesses and break down why and how they’ve chosen to name their business and why it works for them.
The Kitchen
The kitchen is THE place in a home where food is made. This restaurant name uses this to its advantage. Coupled with the authoritative ‘The’, the name delivers a strong message as to its food prowess.
Inside and you’re out (IYO)
An easy to remember acronym whose meaning is the essence of the product on offer: Inside-out burgers where each patty is filled with artisanal cheeses and other gourmet ingredients.
Stokehouse
A combination of smokehouse and steakhouse. The Stokehouse goes even further by telling the audience that they will be stoked (happy/pleased) with their meals.
5 Tips for naming your restaurant
The ideal business name should be simple, memorable and convey a meaning all at the same time. Here are my 5 tips to keep in mind when developing your business names.
1. Do a Competitor Analysis
Doing a competitor analysis as your first step will save you a lot of time in the future, knowing what names to avoid and understanding why and how your competitors business name words for them will help you in forming your own business names. When analyzing competitors think about:
- What business or product values are they conveying in their business name? How does that work for them?
- Is there a trend in how these businesses are naming themselves? It’s best to avoid sounding like “just another one of those businesses”.
- Who does it best? Why does it work and how can I produce a better name?
2. Focus on Naming your Business not Describing it.
A typical pitfall most businesses run into is describing their business name too literally, using overused restaurant terms like tasty, delicious or sweet. A more effective business name should convey to customers your businesses and product values at a deeper level. Try name your business in a way that has a story behind it.
Let’s take for example a real restaurant named “Gracious Madre”.
The name literally translates to ‘Thank you mother’ from Spanish. The foreign language indicates the style of cuisine, while the literature refers to mother earth and fresh ingredients. The name is extremely sound and brandable.
3. How to make a more memorable name
Creating a memorable business name is the first step in getting into a customers mind and is also a task that’s easier said than done. Your business name should aim to stop a customer in their tracks and give an extra thought on your product among your wave of competitors. Some tips to create a memorable name would be:
- Use rhythmic pronunciation or alliteration (Salty Squid, Grassfed Grill)
- Try using a word that wouldn’t be relevant when out of context (El Pirata Porch – El Pirata translates to ‘pirate’ from Spanish which conveys the type of cuisine this restaurant specializes in.)
- Keep it short and simple.
4. Try purchasing a Brandable business name
Brandable business names are names that are non-sensical but read and are pronounced well. They often use letter patterns of Vowel/Consonant/Vowel as these word structures are typically short, catchy and easy to say and remember. For example, some brandable restaurant names could be:
- Bilane Seafood
- Vanilos Grill
- Navarro Kitchen
You can find a full list of Brandable business names at Domainify.com
5. Avoid combining words just to create a unique name.
Another mistake business owners typically make is creating bad word combinations when they find out that their business name idea is already taken. For example, John names his business Veganic Corner and finds out it’s already taken. Because he’s already decided this is what he’ll name his business he tries to opt for similar sounding names like Veganicorner, VeggaCorner or Vegan Corner.
You can see how these ideas are a step backward as they are not catchy, easily pronounceable or memorable. In these situations, we suggest starting from scratch and trying the tips we mentioned previously.
Business Name Ideas
Here’s the ultimate list of related words you could use in your business name. Below is a list of trending, descriptive and action words that are often related to.
Don’t forget to use our Restaurant Name Generator
How Restaurants are often described
(“______ Restaurant”)
Example Restaurant names using these related descriptive words: ‘Rockys Local Steakhouse’ and ‘The Fast Italian Restaurant’.
Restaurant Verbs
You can use a verb in your Restaurant business name to create business names like ‘Cater a la Carte’ or ‘The Open Oven Pizzeria‘.
